Tassili-n-Ajjer, area in southern Algeria where prehistoric rock paintings (and many engravings) were discovered first in 1910 and subsequently in the 1930s and ’60s.

Rock painting of a dance performance, Tassili-n-Ajjer, Algeria, attributed to the Saharan period of …

Jean-Dominique Lajoux

A plateau in the central Sahara, the area is characterized by high cliffs, some of which have decorated panels at their base. Scholars and archaeologists have estimated the age of the rock paintings through various indirect methods, including excavations, faunal studies, climatic studies, depiction of types of weapons and chariots, and inscriptions. The age of the earliest images is contested, but scholars generally agree that they date from approximately 7,000 years ago.

The rock paintings at Tassili fall into a series of major styles that form a chronological sequence. Some of the earliest, known as the Round Heads (thus describing their typical human forms), are followed by naturalistic “Bovidian” paintings, which show numerous pastoral scenes with cattle and herdsmen with bows. The next phase is characterized by the more-schematic figures of the so-called Horse and Camel periods, made when the wheel first appeared about 3,000 years ago.

The engravings include those of an important early school of art, the “Naturalistic Bubaline,” which was approximately contemporary with the Round Head paintings. These artists used a remarkably naturalistic style to depict domestic cattle and wild animals, including the now-extinct giant buffalo.